New Video Reveals Giant Asteroid Vesta as Seen by Spacecraft

Below:

Next story in Space

A new video from a NASA spacecraft takes viewers on a flyover
journey of Vesta, the second-largest object in the main asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Scientists constructed the two-minute video from images taken by
NASA's Dawn probe, which has been orbiting Vesta since July.

In addition to giving armchair astronomers around the world a
great look at Vesta, the video should help scientists better
understand the forces that shaped the massive space rock,
researchers said. [ Video:
Amazing Vesta: Video Look at the Asteroid ]

In the video, the 330-mile (530-kilometer) Vesta is not entirely
lit up; its northern latitudes are shrouded in darkness. That's
because the
giant asteroid Vesta has seasons just like Earth, researchers
said.

It is currently winter in the Vestan north, and the north pole is
in perpetual darkness.

A huge southern crater

The video highlights a huge circular depression several hundred
miles wide near Vesta's south pole. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
first spotted this feature years ago, and scientists have been
eager to get a better look at it ever since.

The cliffs of this massive depression rise several miles up from
its floor, and a 9-mile (15-km) high mountain rises from the
structure's base, researchers said.

Researchers have used Dawn's images to determine Vesta's
rotational axis and to map out a system of latitude and
longitude. The team defined the asteroid's zero-longitude line,
or prime meridian, using a small crater they named "Claudia,"
after a Roman woman who lived in the second century B.C.

Vesta took its name from the Roman goddess of the hearth, home
and family. Craters on the space rock will be named after the
vestal virgins — priestesses of the goddess — and famous Roman
women, researchers said. Other features will take the names of
towns and festivals of ancient Rome.

Sharper images coming soon

Dawn captured the new images used in the video while it was still
about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) above Vesta's surface. The
spacecraft is slated to move down to a lower orbit in October,
from which it should be able to snap even closer photos, with a
resolution about eight times higher, researchers said.

The $466 million Dawn spacecraft launched in September 2007 and
entered orbit around Vesta on July 15 of this year. Next July, it
will head off to study Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid
belt. At 590 miles (950 km) across, Ceres is so large that
astronomers consider it a dwarf planet. [ Meet
the Solar System's Dwarf Planets ]

Dawn is expected to reach Ceres in February 2015. The probe's
observations should allow scientists to compare the dwarf planet
to Vesta. Unlike the drier and more evolved Vesta, Ceres is
considered to be more primitive and wet, possibly harboring water
ice, researchers have said.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and
exploration news on Twitter@Spacedotcomand onFacebook.